What's your job title and how much do you earn?

[sam]

Title: Senior Associate (Law firm)
Salary: $265,000 plus bonus (this year's bonus was $100,000)
Age: 36
Experience: Around 8 years. Which is longer than most people last in these high stress jobs. I know I am making a ridiculous salary right now, but it's not a long term job - once I burn out, I'm out. So I'm stashing.

My health related expenses are through the roof due to the stressful and unhealthy nature of this kind of job, and it's hard to keep personal relationships and friendships when you're always working and always have to cancel social plans, but again, I can tough it out a few more years.

Time to go part-time?

I'm a long time lurker, and finally joined the forum last year. It's taken a while to finally post because I've just been reading and learning, and didn't really have anything to contribute. I like this thread though, and always find this kind of insight interesting.

Title: Call Centre Consultant - first line (entry level), not a supervisory or team leader role
Salary: $68,000 AUD (which includes approx 9% compulsory contributions to the AU version of 401k) plus bonuses (approx $4000). Overtime is paid at about $61/hr before tax.
Age: 31
Experience: 3 years
Degree: None
Career prospects: Dismal. Someone has to die to create a career advancement opportunity.

Wow $61/hour overtime pay!!

TITLE- Self Employed Logistics Specialist-small company
Compensation-300-600k plus full benefits
Age-51 Retired-50
Experience-25 years
Education-HS , barely graduated worked to much!

Made a lot of money over a lot of years but really screwed up with trying to compete with the Jone's, though never paid for anything I couldn't pay cash for including our house. Lost my ass building and selling a house every 2 years on last one almost 500k of all my own $ and thats when i found MMM and got my shit together. While still working on improving my situation after 3 years of MMM was able to make up a lot of my losses and was able to retire.

Congrats, sounds like you went to hell and back!!

Another assistant professor checking in.
Experience: 6 months.
Salary: Total cash compensation will be about $190k in 2016 (yep, it's insane). And the perks are pretty decent--free public transportation, research funds to buy equipment (e.g., books, computers), super cheap membership to school gym, etc.

Blimey and here I was thinking you guys didn't get compensated well!!

age 19-24: 5 year accounting program (to be eligible for CPA you need 150 hours)
age 24-28: public accounting, from 51k to 62k when I left
age 28-29: industry, 90k to 100k when I left a week ago
age 29 (new job): finance manager, 118k total comp for 2016

Masters in Accounting, CPA

Very nicely done!

Thanks for all being so open!

Sam

P.S. Might post the same question on a UK forum to try and get more answers from the 'other side of the pond'! Although us brits do tend to be a little more closed off! Will post back with the link!

[Rural]

I'm kind of surprised to see so many other professors on here, and the range in pay is CRAZY. Being in the social sciences, I know a lot of other fields pay better, but holy crap--190k at the Assistant Level?! Impressive!

I believe the public/private distinction would account for much of the difference in salaries in higher ed in the US.  I work at a public institution, in a state which gives very little funding to higher ed.  Colorado seems to value roads and prisons above all else.  :(

Field and  institution, too - business now makes more than the top in hard science, and this is an elite school. Which, yes, is likely private.


I think I still win the "least pay for a tenured position" contest, which is sort of like a personality prize at a beauty contest, isn't it? ;)

[alice76]

Position: English teacher
Salary: $100,500, plus opportunity to tutor, work at summer camps, etc.
Education: BA in English; MA in Ed
Location: NYC

[mancityfan]

Title: Teacher - Public School
Age: 52
Experience: 17 yrs
Salary: $77k
Side hustles - $12k (soccer refereeing and hobby business)
Education: Masters

[Lhazzmat]

Title: Social Worker
Age:28
Experience: 4 years
Salary: 65k
Education: Masters (2 years in school plus 2 years supervised experience at especially low pay to get clinical license)

[Petuniajo]

I'm kind of surprised to see so many other professors on here, and the range in pay is CRAZY. Being in the social sciences, I know a lot of other fields pay better, but holy crap--190k at the Assistant Level?! Impressive!

I believe the public/private distinction would account for much of the difference in salaries in higher ed in the US.  I work at a public institution, in a state which gives very little funding to higher ed.  Colorado seems to value roads and prisons above all else.  :(

Field and  institution, too - business now makes more than the top in hard science, and this is an elite school. Which, yes, is likely private.


I think I still win the "least pay for a tenured position" contest, which is sort of like a personality prize at a beauty contest, isn't it? ;)

Haha, congratulations? :)

While there are certainly exceptions, as we've seen on this thread, I think that most folks are surprised to learn how little a lot of people with PhDs earn. My DH is not on a tenure track, but he has a PhD in an engineering field, and postdoc under his belt, and now has a research position in a medical school and earns under $50k/year. The upside is that he doesn't have to deal with tenure pressure, and it is a job he really likes. We invested a lot of time and sacrificed a lot of years of earnings to pursue our PhDs, and it certainly isn't for everyone, but we both really like our jobs and don't feel in a rush to FIRE super early. Of course, we still try to live frugally and invest now that we're earning "regular" money so that we have flexibility and financial freedom later on.

[Vilgan]

I think a more interesting question is "how much do you earn per hour?" since that's something a lot of people lose sight of when on salary. There can be huge discrepancies in the software dev world as some people making 130k are working 40 hours per week and some are working 60 and the ones working 60 rarely notice the lower pay per life hour.

[JoeBlow]

Title: Software Developer
Salary: $98k + ~18k bonus + ~6k grants
Experience: 17 years
Education: GED + ~2 years of community college (no degree).

[monstermonster]

Title: Development Manager
Salary: $39,500
Experience: 10 years
Education: GED + BA in Economics

[cdttmm]

Title: Adjunct Professor (community college)
Salary: ~$3500 per 3 credit course; I earn ~$64K per year (9 months), no benefits
Experience: difficult to quantify, I've been teaching as an adjunct for 7 years, but initially it was just 1 course per semester; 15 years of corporate finance/operations experience
Education: two masters degrees + various certifications

[MsFrugalista]

Title: Management Consultant
Salary: 145K + Bonus up to 10%
Experience: 10 years
Education: Bachelor's in Engineering

[albireo13]

Title:  R&D Electrical engineer
Salary:  $144k + annual bonus
Experience: 36 years
Education:  BS, MS

[JLee]

Title: Technical Manager (IT)
Salary: $97k + annual bonus
Experience: 3 years
Education: AA

[Expatriate]

Title:  Financial risk management consultant
Salary:  CHF 160k + bonus (up to 25%), this year's 175k gross translated into 130k net.
Experience: 8 years
Education:  MSc in Mathematics, CFA, FRM

[Prairie Gal]

I'm a lot older, and make less money, than most of the people here, but I'll chime in for diversity.

Title: Accounting Technician
Age: 56
Salary: about $58,000 including overtime during tax season
Side hustle: about $12,000
Experience: about 25 years, most in bookkeeping, not accounting per se
Education: One year college diploma, plus night courses. 2 years university. Many years life experience.

[Icecreamarsenal]

Title: General Surgery Resident
Age: 31
Experience: 4yrs
Salary: 120k+ benefits
Education: 4yr undergrad+4 med school+ (6 residency, I'm in year 5).

Pay will go up after graduation, by about 40k or so. Plus I can supplement with locums, most places pay 100-125$/hr.

Wow what?? I was making 56k as a pgy4, and it was scaled to the highest COL in the US. Things have really changed in 4 years.

[Davids]

Title: Senior Financial Analyst
Age: 33
Salary $85K + up to 15% annual Bonus Potential (My bonus this year was $11K)
Education: BS Finance and MBA Finance
Experience: 10 Years (Been with current employer for almost 3 years)

[cavewoman]

Title: eligibility worker
Salary: 28,262
Experience: been at this job for 6 months. Overall experience in similar positions: 3 years.
Age: 29
Education: Bach in social work.

When I went to college I knew I wouldn't make much money, but I didn't think it would matter to me. I like what I do, but its not as personally rewarding as it used to be.
I work in government and will have a pension if I make it 5 years. I've been testing in the number 1 spot for better paying jobs, but not getting hired :-(
Cross your fingers for me that I hear good news this week that would earn me a 50% raise!

[Cap_Scarlet]

Title: Partner
Age: 51
Salary: This year €650,000 (c. $700k)
Experience: 30 years
Education: University degree and qualified accountant

I would only say a couple of things.

1. You can get very used to money such that it becomes the new normal - once you're there its like a drug that's hard to quit.
2. It doesn't mean I am a better (or worse) person or that I am worth it - its just means that's the market rate.
3. I could retire tomorrow......but it niggles me that if I did i would forgo around $7 million (earnings for the next 10 years to normal retirement date)....could you do it?

[pbkmaine]

Yes, I could give up the extra millions. I don't need or want a lot of fancy stuff.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dibbels81]

Title: Speech-Language Pathologist in medical setting
Age: 34
Salary: 70k +5k yearly tuition reimbursement
Experience: New grad (career change)
Education: M.A.

[FIRE_Buckeye]

age 19-24: 5 year accounting program (to be eligible for CPA you need 150 hours)
age 24-28: public accounting, from 51k to 62k when I left
age 28-29: industry, 90k to 100k when I left a week ago
age 29 (new job): finance manager, 118k total comp for 2016

Masters in Accounting, CPA

That's the kind of trajectory I'd be stoked to have.

Title: Financial Analyst
Age: 26
Salary: $55k + 10% bonus
Experience: 3 years total (6 months in current position)
Education: BA in Accounting, 2/4 parts of CPA exam passed (hoping to knock out by next summer).  Certification should open up a lot of doors.

[kittenstache]

Title: General Surgery Resident
Age: 31
Experience: 4yrs
Salary: 120k+ benefits
Education: 4yr undergrad+4 med school+ (6 residency, I'm in year 5).

Pay will go up after graduation, by about 40k or so. Plus I can supplement with locums, most places pay 100-125$/hr.

Wow what?? I was making 56k as a pgy4, and it was scaled to the highest COL in the US. Things have really changed in 4 years.

Does the $120,000 include pay for moonlighting? I've never heard of any resident getting more than $65000 a year. Medscape reported that the average resident salary in 2015 is $55400

[kittenstache]

Title: Pediatrician
Age: 37
Experience: 8 years, post- residency
Salary: 140K + benefits
Education: 4 years undergrad + 4 years med school + 3 years residency

[leighb]

Title: Head of Upper School (Charter School)
Age:35
Experience: 10 years teaching
Salary: $51,000
Education: BA Math/Ed and MST Math/Ed

Would be making more at a traditional school. Would be working less just as a teacher.

[Dr. Pepper]

Sorry should have been more specific, I'm a Military surgery resident. Current rank CPT/O3. Also i have over 12 years time in service.

Title: General Surgery Resident
Age: 31
Experience: 4yrs
Salary: 120k+ benefits
Education: 4yr undergrad+4 med school+ (6 residency, I'm in year 5).

Pay will go up after graduation, by about 40k or so. Plus I can supplement with locums, most places pay 100-125$/hr.

Wow what?? I was making 56k as a pgy4, and it was scaled to the highest COL in the US. Things have really changed in 4 years.

Does the $120,000 include pay for moonlighting? I've never heard of any resident getting more than $65000 a year. Medscape reported that the average resident salary in 2015 is $55400

[Sailor Sam]

Title: General Surgery Resident
Age: 31
Experience: 4yrs
Salary: 120k+ benefits
Education: 4yr undergrad+4 med school+ (6 residency, I'm in year 5).

Pay will go up after graduation, by about 40k or so. Plus I can supplement with locums, most places pay 100-125$/hr.

Wow what?? I was making 56k as a pgy4, and it was scaled to the highest COL in the US. Things have really changed in 4 years.

Does the $120,000 include pay for moonlighting? I've never heard of any resident getting more than $65000 a year. Medscape reported that the average resident salary in 2015 is $55400

Sorry should have been more specific, I'm a Military surgery resident. Current rank CPT/O3. Also i have over 12 years time in service.

Damn! I'm also an LT/O-3 sitting at 10 years, and there is one fuckton of a differential between our pay rates. Colour me suitably impressed. And curious. I'm never going to become a doctor, but it's always nice to learn about all the special pay structures that exist out there.

Does the $120k include BAH, BAS, and VSP? You're still a resident, so I assume you're not getting Medical Additional Special Pay or Board Certified Pay?

[Abe]

Sorry should have been more specific, I'm a Military surgery resident. Current rank CPT/O3. Also i have over 12 years time in service.

Title: General Surgery Resident
Age: 31
Experience: 4yrs
Salary: 120k+ benefits
Education: 4yr undergrad+4 med school+ (6 residency, I'm in year 5).

Pay will go up after graduation, by about 40k or so. Plus I can supplement with locums, most places pay 100-125$/hr.

Wow what?? I was making 56k as a pgy4, and it was scaled to the highest COL in the US. Things have really changed in 4 years.

Does the $120,000 include pay for moonlighting? I've never heard of any resident getting more than $65000 a year. Medscape reported that the average resident salary in 2015 is $55400

Makes more sense, considering your experience. Are you going to specialize? I have a few friends in the military, a lot are going into Vascular and was wondering if that's a need they're being pushed towards or what they actually want to do.

[sam]

Wow, not a lot of Europeans here!

Maybe I should consider shifting to the US after all!!!

Thanks all for the replies,

Sam

[2lazy2retire]

What shock's me is the salary of some posters in relation to their level of education. I think here lies the problem with student debt in the US - would be interesting to note how much people spent getting a BA/MA or multiples there off as a percentage of their current income.

[JordanOfGilead]

What shock's me is the salary of some posters in relation to their level of education. I think here lies the problem with student debt in the US - would be interesting to note how much people spent getting a BA/MA or multiples there off as a percentage of their current income.

I had about $22k in student loan debt as well as another $25k in living expense debt (because I was a lazy brat in school) when I graduated with a BS in mechanical engineering after taking 5 years to get it.
$47k in debt, my first job had a salary of 50k + overtime (came out closer to 67k) and my current is 65, but that's with a STEM degree so although it may be the common type of education among mustachians, it's not a typical case for the average debt-laden American.

[PizzaSteve]

While I applaud the sharing nature of this forum, I caution members to use discretion with sharing personal financial information that might be used to identify oneself to a tax authority.

The attempt to steal tax returns by applying for refunds is a huge fraud issue in the United States and information such as employer, job title and salary could assist someone attempting identity theft.  I suggest a subtle disguising and rounding of your information, so as not to aid a possible thief.

A thread like this can be a gold mine for predators.  Be careful community.

[zephyr911]

Interesting! I guess when I read that requirement I had assumed they would assign me deals or whatever, like a job. It sounds like they're mostly just a service provider and don't care if you're just writing your own deals, which seems like a much better arrangement to me.

You're generally expected to bring in all your own business, though they obviously have a vested interest in enabling you to do so efficiently.
Full-time agents take turns on "floor duty", which means whoever calls the company gets forwarded to you for that time period. Some brokers have dedicated lead generators that feed their agents prospects too. For me, I don't even really promote myself and they don't send me any work. When my LLC buys, I handle the deal. If a friend refers someone to me, I'll usually take it.

While I applaud the sharing nature of this forum, I caution members to use discretion with sharing personal financial information that might be used to identify oneself to a tax authority.

The attempt to steal tax returns by applying for refunds is a huge fraud issue in the United States and information such as employer, job title and salary could assist someone attempting identity theft.  I suggest a subtle disguising and rounding of your information, so as not to aid a possible thief.

A thread like this can be a gold mine for predators.  Be careful community.

If they try it with mine, the joke's on them. Literally thousands of people earn the same exact pay, and I calibrate my withholding so the IRS never owes me a meaningful amount. Hehe

[PizzaSteve]

You would be surprised how hard people work for a bit of information that might enable a small scam, even to claim a small gift certificate.  Be careful out there folks. :-)

[Sailor Sam]

Fair warning I suppose. But my  salary is a matter of public record. Plus, the Office of Personnel Management breach has let my SSN, my DoD number, and my birth date out to range free. Probably other vitals as well. Posting on MMM doesn't fuss me much.

[JordanOfGilead]

Fair warning I suppose. But my  salary is a matter of public record. Plus, the Office of Personnel Management breach has let my SSN, my DoD number, and my birth date out to range free. Probably other vitals as well. Posting on MMM doesn't fuss me much.

I'm in pretty much the same boat.

[Travis]

Fair warning I suppose. But my  salary is a matter of public record. Plus, the Office of Personnel Management breach has let my SSN, my DoD number, and my birth date out to range free. Probably other vitals as well. Posting on MMM doesn't fuss me much.

One of the long-running jokes this summer going around the office while filling out security clearance paperwork was "I can't remember where I lived 7 years ago!"  "Just give the Chinese Embassy a call, they have it on file."

[WGH]

Title: CFO - Govt/nonprofit
Age:35
Experience: 10 years
Salary: 110k
Education: Masters

Feeling a bit underpaid compared to some of y'all but I'm in a LCOL area and it's government.

[Aphalite]

That's the kind of trajectory I'd be stoked to have.

A bit of it is who you know/meet in your career - the other part is learning new skills as you go, not necessarily on the job. In the end, accounting/finance is just reporting on the business, so read and learn as much as you can about business operations - it will make an impression during interviews

Feeling a bit underpaid compared to some of y'all but I'm in a LCOL area and it's government.

I know you're not really complaining, but it reminds me of Charlie Munger's opinion on envy: "The idea of caring is that someone is making money faster [than you are] is one of the deadly sins. Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?"

I catch myself doing it quite often too, but in the end, like Vilgan stated, quality of life should be a huge consideration too. A few of my advisors told me I was leaving money on the table by taking my new job, and I think I could probably get up to 50% more in certain industries/roles, but at the same time, I don't really want that lifestyle, I want the 40-45 hour work week with low stress, leaving plenty of free time for family, friends, and more self improvement. Sounds to me like your job could be typical of that as well

[Liggy]

Title: IT Consultant/Director of my own consultancy
Age: 27
Experience: 8 years
Salary: £75k/$112k
Education: Some vocational qualifications (I'm from the UK) but never attended University

[2lazy2retire]

Title: IT Consultant/Director of my own consultancy
Age: 27
Experience: 8 years
Salary: £75k/$112k
Education: Some vocational qualifications (I'm from the UK) but never attended University

Great example - someone earning over 100k and has not spent years and dollars gaining useless qualifications. Education or training should be more focused. Everyone now wants to spend 4 years in college - of course its encouraged, lots of money to be made - its all about the college experience at 30k/year :)

[lisahi]

Title: Attorney, U.S. Federal Government
Age:39
Experience: 10 years
Salary: with the 1% raise and about 0.4% locality adjustment for 2016, I'll be at around $103,300. That's not exact, since the Office of Personnel Management hasn't posted the official salaries for 2016 yet. I'm on the GS pay scale; my salary is public (with my name, too) by law.
Education: J.D. (3 years), MBA (2 years), B.S. (4 years) - I currently have about $120K in student loans, ALL from law school. I had other student loans, but paid them back. If I could go back in time and attend a different, less expensive law school that offered me a near-full scholarship, I would (I had that opportunity). But I was young, naïve, and wanted to live in a big, fancy city and go to a "Tier 1" law school.

I worked for 5 years in private practice and I would be making a lot more right now had I stayed. You don't work for the U.S. Federal government as an attorney and expect to get comparatively compensated. It's not going to happen. The Federal salary cap is about $50K less than what I would probably be making right now had I stayed in private practice. But I traded money for a modicum of sanity (not that the lack of resources and staffing doesn't make my current job more stressful than it needs to be).

[startingsmall]

What shock's me is the salary of some posters in relation to their level of education. I think here lies the problem with student debt in the US - would be interesting to note how much people spent getting a BA/MA or multiples there off as a percentage of their current income.

I was one of those ridiculously lucky folks whose parents paid for everything. If I had paid for my education myself, though, my undergraduate & vet school expenses probably would have totaled somewhere around $150k (this is between 1997-2006, at state schools, including tuition & living expenses). My first job paid $45k/yr and I'm now at $92k/yr (which works out to $44/hr  with my current schedule).

One of many, many, many reasons that I STRONGLY discourage anyone from ever pursuing a career in the veterinary field.

[JetBlast]

Title: Captain for a regional airline
Experience: nearly 8 years with the company
Salary: Around $90k, depending on how much I work. 

[REAL WORLD EXPAT]

What shock's me is the salary of some posters in relation to their level of education. I think here lies the problem with student debt in the US - would be interesting to note how much people spent getting a BA/MA or multiples there off as a percentage of their current income.

I was one of those ridiculously lucky folks whose parents paid for everything. If I had paid for my education myself, though, my undergraduate & vet school expenses probably would have totaled somewhere around $150k (this is between 1997-2006, at state schools, including tuition & living expenses). My first job paid $45k/yr and I'm now at $92k/yr (which works out to $44/hr  with my current schedule).

One of many, many, many reasons that I STRONGLY discourage anyone from ever pursuing a career in the veterinary field.

My wife got out of state undergrad and vet school with $60K in student debt (1995 - 2004) which wasn't bad as many of her out of state friends were up to over $250,000 by the end! But I saw a lot of these students driving round in fancy trucks and lived in the nice side of town where we lived cheap!

With respect to your salary I think it might be relative to your location and what you practice - I know if we'd have stayed in the town where my wife went to vet school the pay was terrible - amble supply of vets around. But doing small animal in Chicago the pay is better then what you get, her hours are really good and she really enjoys her work and she'd recommend veterinary medicine as a career. If your sole goal was to make a lot of money then sure there are lots of other fields that trump it, but I don't know of anyone who enters the field but for the love of animals - just be grateful your don't practice in the UK - the pay there is ridiculously low!

As for me undergrad (1998 - 2002) in the UK put me in debt to the tune of about $20K but most of that was spend on trips to the US to see my girlfriend! MBA I got a full ride from the company I work for.

[mozar]

Title: Program Manager
Age: 33
Experience: 8 years
Certificates: none
Salary: 94k
HCOL
Education:I went to a fancy pants private university and graduated with 100k in debt. I worked as a cashier for a couple years and realized holy crap! I can't pay back those loans as a cashier! So I went back to fancy pants university and got a masters degree in accounting (35k).
I started as an external auditor for 1.5 years at 54k. Laid off during recession. Took me almost a year to find a job in audit consulting at 60k. Did that for 5 years. Found out about MMM 2 years ago and realized I could be making a lot more. Got a job for 75k, got a raise to 80k. Recently accepted a job at 94k. We'll see how that goes! And loans are paid off, thank you very much.

[hlca]

Title: Higher than associate; lower than equity partner (Law firm)
Compensation: roughly $500 to $650K
Age: mid 30s
Experience: 10 years as a lawyer.

Title: Senior Associate (Law firm)
Salary: $265,000 plus bonus (this year's bonus was $100,000)
Age: 36
Experience: Around 8 years. Which is longer than most people last in these high stress jobs. I know I am making a ridiculous salary right now, but it's not a long term job - once I burn out, I'm out. So I'm stashing.
Education: BA, JD, LLM. Lots of student loans, but only at 0.9% interest so I'm paying the minimum each year.

Milk that salary till you're able to FIRE!  I'm leaving in 2 months.  I've only recently entered upper-mid six figures and to give it up so quickly is a little sad, but I'm really not into the work anymore.

Title: Partner
Age: 51
Salary: This year €650,000 (c. $700k)
Experience: 30 years
Education: University degree and qualified accountant

I would only say a couple of things.

1. You can get very used to money such that it becomes the new normal - once you're there its like a drug that's hard to quit.
2. It doesn't mean I am a better (or worse) person or that I am worth it - its just means that's the market rate.
3. I could retire tomorrow......but it niggles me that if I did i would forgo around $7 million (earnings for the next 10 years to normal retirement date)....could you do it?

Agree with you on 1.  The first time I got a six figure bonus, the excitement went away in a day or two.  On 3, there's going to be a point where an extra dollar is not worth as much to you as an extra day.  When you are 70, how would you feel knowing that you spent 15 of the last 20 years of your life working for money you didn't need, when you could have been living your life to the fullest?  Where do you draw the line as there's always more money to be made.

I've struggled with this issue mightily as it would be so easy to keep going and banking hundreds of thousands each year.  But if the first point you raised is true, why hold out longer than necessary?  I'm in my mid-30s and already thinking I would regret trading potential freedom for the rest of my 30s and my 40s for money working at a desk job that I don't like that much.

[startingsmall]

With respect to your salary I think it might be relative to your location and what you practice - I know if we'd have stayed in the town where my wife went to vet school the pay was terrible - amble supply of vets around. But doing small animal in Chicago the pay is better then what you get, her hours are really good and she really enjoys her work and she'd recommend veterinary medicine as a career. If your sole goal was to make a lot of money then sure there are lots of other fields that trump it, but I don't know of anyone who enters the field but for the love of animals - just be grateful your don't practice in the UK - the pay there is ridiculously low!

Pay is absolutely related to area of the country. I'm a small animal general practitioner living in a LCOL area in the South. In order to get that $92k, I work a soul-sucking corporate job at Banfield (the chain inside of Petsmart) where I spend my days getting chewed out by clients who think we're ripping them off (in many ways, we are... our care is good, but our prices are about twice as high as other clinics in our area), getting chewed out by middle managers who don't think I'm making them enough money (constant pressure to see more patients, upsell on everything, never turn away even non-emergent walk-ins, work with minimal staff, etc), and euthanizing animals with treatable conditions who are victims of owner neglect. Burnout in the veterinary profession is a very real issue (hence our suicide rate being higher than any other profession!) and I'm totally there. Not suicidal, but totally and completely burnt out. Currently working on my exit plan to get out of this profession.

The work environment may be slightly better at a private practice outside of Banfield. Due the cruddy local economy and the low value that Southerners place on pets, though, those jobs are few and far between in this area and pay tends to max out at around $70k. And even then, problems like hostile clients, owner neglect, and convenience euthanasia are the norm. I'm tied to this area due to husband's family and his work, so my options are limited at this time.

Glad to hear that your wife enjoys vetmed. In talking to my vet school classmates, I've found only a handful of people who are still happy to be in this profession.... so she's a lucky girl!

[REAL WORLD EXPAT]

.... so she's a lucky girl!

I tell her that every day...wait we're talking her enjoying her job here not me!

In all seriousness I do envy how much she enjoys her job, boss, clients, patients, staff and working hours and after a sabbatical when I FIRE I fully suspect she will work part time as she enjoys it so much. That being said she has heard stories that mirror yours so that may affect our (or my) FIRE location to make sure she is in a positive environment or else I'm sure she'll be as disillusioned as you are, I'm sorry it's not working out for you. As an animal lover it makes me sad that even a profession that should be dedicated to doing the best thing for animals is being exploited for profits at all cost.

[Helvegen]

Title: Front Desk Jockey
Total Compensation: Around $61k
Years of Experience: Several
Training/Education: OTJ is all that is necessary, however a BA was 'highly desired'. I happened to have one.

I have one of the easiest jobs for the money in the world. Some days I just sit here like '...really? They are happily shelling out $61k a year for this?".